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Contemporary art overlapped with Hollywood celebrity at the Oscars this weekend. For me, these were the highlights of the show: the concurrent Banksy buzz on Twitter, Justin Timberlake saying, “I’m Banksy”, and host James Franco – an emerging artist in the fields of digital media and performance art.

Oscar co-host and emerging artist James Franco photo: LA Times

Franco, an Oscar nominated actor, is currently studying Digital Media at the Rhode Island School of Design and is also actively engaged in performance art, painting, video, and installation art. He has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Clocktower Gallery, New York, and Peres Projects, Berlin.

Franco at Peres Projects peresprojects.com

"Waz Up" by James Franco

Coinciding with the Oscars is Franco’s Gagosian Gallery exhibit with well-known Hollywood director and painter Gus Van Sant.

"Untitled 2010" by Gus Van Sant, Gagosian Gallery gagosian.com

Also blurring the lines between performance art and acting, reality and fiction, is Franco’s current role as an artist named “Franco” on General Hospital. Evidently, the real life Franco created the role for a variety of reasons and once on the job he recognized the opportunity to create art.

Franco on General Hospital photo: ABC

According to an LA Times blog, “MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch collaborated with Franco to produce what they consider performance art – which includes the taping of an episode [of General Hospital at MOCA], the event of watching the taping, the episode broadcast on TV, and a film that Franco is making about the experience, which MOCA plans to screen at the museum.” Jeffrey Deitch appeared on General Hospital alongside his pal James Franco, as well. Confused yet?

The artist "Mr. Franco" on General Hospital photo: ABC

The film that Franco is making which includes his role on General Hospital will be on exhibit at Deitch Projects‘ Long Island City space sometime this spring. Jeffrey Deitch, a huge name in the art world, is known for producing ambitious projects by contemporary artists. He has been the art advisor to several of the most important private collectors of modern and contemporary art and has been the art dealer for many important works of contemporary art bought and sold.

Jeffrey Deitch & James Franco photo: dailyserving.com

All in all, stranger things have happened. According to fastcompany.com, “…in a recent interview, Jeffrey Deitch said he wants us to remember a very important precedent: Andy Warhol was on The Love Boat.”
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When the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) hired gallery owner, curator and art dealer Jeffrey Deitch as its new director, the art world raised its collective eyebrows. The move was a major shake up on two fronts: primarily because academics are typically favored over private dealers for such positions due to potential conflicts of interest, but also due to Deitch’s particular background.

While hardly your typical “outsider,” Deitch has been both an institution in the New York art world and a champion of young, emerging and often controversial artists since the 1980′s. A Harvard MBA and one time Vice-President at Citibank, he immersed himself in the burgeoning street art scene almost from its inception, working with  Jean Michel-Basquiat and eventually coming to represent the estate of Keith Haring.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Source: TheCityReview.com

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Keith Haring

In more recent years Deitch Projects has aided subsequent waves of street, graffiti and other non-traditional artists in transitioning into the mainstream art world, providing representation and a venue for gallery exposure.

Barry McGee, Source: GiantRobot.com

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Steve Powers, Source: RobotsWillKill.com

He has funded art armadas and human hamster nest installations, fostering the slow acceptance of outliers as icons in their own right.

Swoon "Miss Rockaway Armada," Source: TheDailyBeast.com

Deitch has always bankrolled his more provocative exhibitions and exploits by brokering art sales, catering to high-profile private collectors–a field in which there are far more gray areas than in the starched white world of institutional leadership.

Even as he shutters Deitch Projects on June 1 in order to assume his new position, all eyes will be on him for back room dealings or inklings of self-interest. It’s a gamble for MOCA, but considering Jeffrey Deitch’s already monumental impact on the shape and form of contemporary art as we know it today, it’s one that could pay off handsomely.